Millionaires more outgoing, emotionally stable: German study claims
If you want to be rich, it helps if you're outgoing, conscientious, emotionally stable and not averse to taking risks, according to data from a new study that analyzed trends among adults living in Germany.
In the study, "The personality traits of self-made and inherited millionaires," published in the journal Nature, researchers Marius Leckelt, Johannes König, David Richter, Mitja D. Back and Carsten Schröder examined data on 23,721 individuals in the German Socio-Economic Panel.
Among this sample group, 1,125 individuals recorded an individual net wealth of at least 1 million euros. Another 190 had an individual net wealth of at least 5 million euros, 61 had at least 10 million euros, while the richest five respondents had net wealth between 100 million and 131 million euros.
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Results of their review suggest that when the rich are compared with the rest of the German population they were found to be more outgoing, registered a higher degree of conscientiousness and had a higher tolerance for risk.
“In this paper, we have shown that the rich differ from the rest of the population not only with respect to their wealth but also with respect to their personality traits. The prototypical personality profile of the rich is marked by higher Risk tolerance, Openness, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness, and lower Neuroticism,” the researchers concluded. “Further, we provide initial suggestive evidence that this unique personality profile may contribute to wealth accumulation.”
The researchers found that self-made millionaires matched the "prototypical personality profile of the rich." The more closely their personalities aligned with the profile “the richer they were,” the study said. Rich people who inherited their wealth did not match the prototypical profile as closely as the self-made millionaires.
“We provide suggestive evidence that personality may be a driving force in the accumulation of wealth rather than a consequence thereof. We show that rich self-mades conform most closely to the prototypical rich personality profile. Rich inheritors, in contrast, do not conform to the prototypical rich personality profile: They are far less willing to take risks and more neurotic,” the study said. “Thus, it appears that being born into wealth does not automatically lead to the development of the prototypical rich personality profile.”
Researchers noted that the prototypical personality profile was also observed among non-rich self-made individuals to a lesser extent, which suggests that having a certain personality alone wasn’t enough to lead people to wealth.
“This personality profile therefore does not automatically lead to economic success. Many other factors contribute to an individual’s position in the wealth distribution, such as initial capital, education, and abilities. However, the evidence we have gathered conforms to the idea that the unique personality of millionaires is driven by individuals with a self-made personality having a higher chance of becoming rich,” researchers noted.
It was explained in the study that while the data offers compelling insights into the personalities of the wealthy who are usually difficult to access, the findings were limited because the sample of individuals studied came from only Germany — a highly developed nation with a wide dispersion in wealth.
“It may not necessarily represent all high-wealth countries, such as the United States, where the wealth distribution is even more unequal,” researchers said. “Further, societal and cultural differences that shape personalities in Germany may also not be generalizable to other countries such as the United States, which is generally considered to be more individualistic than other countries.”
